Eurozone inflation failed to pick up in November — ahead of Mario Draghi's QE boost

A
pilot inflates his hot air balloon during the 44th International
Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, N.M., Sunday, Oct. 4,
2015.AP Photo/Andres
Leighto

Eurozone inflation stayed still in November, with price growth
holding at 0.1% year-on-year. That's a long way from the European
Central Bank's 2% target.

Analysts were expecting CPI to have risen by 0.2% year-on-year,
up from 0.1% in October.

Core consumer prices rose by 0.9%, less than last month's figure
and less than was forecast.

Core prices are an important measure because they strip out the
most volatile items — things like fuel and food prices which are
subject to massive variations.

A large part of the eurozone's extremely low inflation right now
is down to the slump in the price of oil over the last year — but
the core figure shows that other prices aren't rising by as much
as the ECB would like, either.

Analysts had expected core prices to rise by 1%, down from 1.1%
in October.

ECB chief Mario Draghi is gearing up to announce more easing
measures after Thursday's policy meeting. That seems likely
to mean a bigger quantitative easing (QE) programme, and possibly
more interest rate cuts — which would push the eurozone deposit
rate even further into negative territory.